Lean Startup

This approach to the commercialisation of innovation is defined in the book “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries and also on his blog “Startup Lessons Learned.” Eric Ries was a student of Steve Blanks and had his own startup called IMVU. He runs the Startup Lessons Learned Conference and his book focuses on the build-measure-learn loop, innovation accounting and other lean startup concepts.

The Lean Startup also emphasises validated learning around:

  • the Value Proposition Hypothesis
  • the Growth Hypothesis

To increase a startups chances of success (i.e. learning enough before running out of money) it needs to iterate the build-measure-learn loop fast as possible. In particular, it needs to optimise the whole process for speed rather than the quality of any one particular stage (build, measure, or learn). The lean approach emphasises only doing what is absolutely necessary to achieve your goal (of learning).

The term Lean Startup™ was coined (and trademarked) by Eric Ries.